Katnip Forum: What actually works

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Topic: What actually works
Posted: 26 Sep 2006 at 1:54pm

So many of us have lost cats :( - as you all probably know from my other thread, BG has gone missing. Still no news, over a week now. I've been lucky and never had a cat go AWOL for more than 24 hours before. This also makes me think that I'm a reasonable owner! I can only think that he's been scared or hurt, or is shut in somewhere - but I can't hear him.

Some cats come back, some don't. We all know the drill in terms of calling vets, rescues, council, checking with neighbours and asking them to open sheds/garages, putting posters up, putting leaflets round, advertising in press, leaving out food/dirty washing/used litter, etc. And spending hours on end traipsing the streets rattling cat food and calling goes without saying.

According to my nice local CPL lady, unless they have recently moved and are trying to find their way back, most cats don't go very far from home in the first few weeks - they are just too scared (or having too much fun, grrrr) to come home and only move further afield when they get desperate for food.

What have people found to actually work in bringing their babies home safe and sound? Neighbourhood networking? Putting leaflets through doors? Local vets/rescues? - if you lost your cat and s/he didn't just wander through the door one day, what helped?

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Robina
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Posted: 26 Sep 2006 at 4:49pm

I think, from the tales I have heard, to just keep actively looking for weeks andd weeks. Posters certainly, vets as well and regular visits to rescues. In some instances, people can give up after 3/4 weeks and yet we have reunited cats that have been missing for 3/4 months. The CVL lady is right- they don't go far but that doesn't mean that they can find their way home. I'm sure you are doing all you can but it can be a lonely and seemingly futile search.

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Tracey
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Posted: 26 Sep 2006 at 5:02pm

I know when my Spyro went missing the first time, i searched around the area...upto 5 streets away. I posted posters, rang vets and resues. it turns out he was in the street next to the last street i was looking.....he had run into a house through a catflap, and was hiding. They looked around the area for lost notices, but i hadnt posted that far. So they rang their vet, who was my vet too...and we were reunited. It turns out he had been picked up by someone...and had got very frightened, got away and hid in this lady's house. So i defo recommend searching much further afield.

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Posted: 26 Sep 2006 at 7:46pm

Further afield than you think---I second that. Remember a cat travels through gardens, not along streets, so you have to think of distances as the crow flies.

In BG's case, since I seem to remember he was an uncastrated stray till recently, he knows how to fend for himself, so think cat---where is there a good food supply? This might be somewhere that feral cats are being fed, or somewhere there is an abundant supply of wild rabbits for instance.

Years ago a client's cat went missing about 3 weeks before he was due to be boarded with me when they went on holiday. They searched everywhere and had more or less given up hope, but before they went on holiday I told them to change the phone number on the posters etc to mine while they were away. I got a phone call from a cook at a residential school on the outskirts of the town they lived in---probably about 4 miles from where they lived. She'd seen a poster on a lampost when she was in town and thought it might be the ginger cat who was hanging around in the grounds.

When I got up there---massive grounds and rabbits everywhere----you were virtually stepping on rabbits. It was Jasper and I got hold of him without a problem. So weird really because he must have wandered up there himself and was having such fun hunting and eating rabbits he just forgot to go home. Next time he disappeared they drove straight up there and he ran to meet the car---thanks for coming to give me a lift home!

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Posted: 26 Sep 2006 at 9:52pm

yes, also leaving food out in your garden. We were told when magic was gone, and Giz for that matter, that if you leave food out, even though u might not see them, they may well still come home for food if they can...

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Robina
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Posted: 26 Sep 2006 at 9:53pm

That's encouraging, Sandre. Maybe it would be worth going back later for a few nights and calling

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Eve
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Posted: 28 Sep 2006 at 2:58pm

No no... do you think he has jumped into a van?

If he is insured, more insurers help with advertising costs.

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Robina
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Posted: 29 Sep 2006 at 1:13pm

Hopefully, with him being a long term stray, he can fend for himself but I do hope for some good news soon. All credit to you for the massive amount of time you're putting into finding this nawty boy. I hope you are lucky cos often that's all it is.

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Nancy
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Posted: 29 Sep 2006 at 2:15pm

A few years ago, Sabrina went missing under similar circumstances. We were out of town and she managed to get out because she's an escape artist. We had gotten her a few months before, she had been unspayed, and her previous owners hadn't given her much care. My theory is that she reverted to her alley cat ways while we were gone. She probably thought we were never coming back and went looking for a new source of food and/or kitty companionship. If there's a colony of strays or ferals in your neighborhood, he might be with them. I think the suggestion of setting out food in your garden is a good one.

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Posted: 29 Sep 2006 at 2:36pm

I have a spare covered litter tray - which was clean and aired. So last week (Tuesday - when I reported him everywhere as missing) I put that out with one of my old T-shirts that he sleeps on and a bowl of food in it. So it's hopefully attractive as a shelter as well as for food supply. I need to move it further from the house now I think - back of the garden rather than close to the door, where it is at the moment.

The food goes, but there are so many cats around where I live - it's actually probably greedy fat Rug who is responsible - but I make sure the bowl is always full, just in case...

I will follow up colonies with CPL now - he was on his own as a stray before, not with a colony as far as we know, but it's worth seeing if they know of any colonies that we can check, great idea thanks :)

EDIT: just left a message and will ask all the vets when I phone round them tomorrow as well.

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